Consumer demand has previously created the need for hueing of textile substrates without staining to provide a whitening effect for the treated substrates. The solution to this problem resulted in colored speckles being added to detergents. These colored speckles are visually apparent to the consumer as being lightly colored particles among the non-colored (i.e. white) particles of the actual detergent. However, more recently, there is a demand for the same whitening effect without the visual appearance of colored speckles in the granular detergent. Thus, the need exists for materials for use in laundry care compositions (such as laundry detergent compositions, laundry aids, and fabric care compositions) and other consumer products that are indiscernible in these compositions, yet they provide an equivalent whitening effect to the textile substrates treated therewith without bleeding into the surrounding composition and without staining the substrates that come into contact with the materials.
The occult particles of the present disclosure are ideally suited for providing all of these consumer-desired features to the powdered or granular laundry care compositions (such as laundry detergent compositions, laundry aids, and fabric care compositions). The occult particles provide an aesthetically-pleasing whitening effect to textile substrates treated therewith. They are non-staining to the treated substrates. They also resist bleeding or transferring to the surrounding laundry care composition. Furthermore, the occult particles of the present disclosure provide release of color, or other actives, from the clay carrier and provide desirable color to the wash water. For these reasons, and others that will be described herein, the present occult particles represent a useful advance over the prior art. It is understood that the occult particles of the present disclosure are also ideally suited for providing other consumer-desired features, such as, for example, coloring of wash water and color-change effects.